Letter to the Editor

As ‘Thee Donald’ declares himself “The Chosen One” and “The Second-Coming of God”, crazy right-wingers ever more fiercely denounce liberals for attacking Trump for his many failures, his attempts to subvert our Constitution, and his outright lunatic-ravings!  Adriana Cohen, who I rarely read, recently attacked Cory Booker, who was mayor of Newark, New Jersey (2006 – 2013), for a recently discovered ‘water emergency’, resulting from old lead pipes, a problem in all parts of the country, including Galesburg, IL.  Cohen went on to blame Dems for not getting an infrastructure bill passed, as if they could without the majority Republican Senate and GOP president.  ‘Chuck & Nancy’ tried meeting with Trump, but he used a prior remark by Pelosi as an excuse to walk out of ‘The Deal’.  Cohen bemoaned that “Dems have made it almost impossible” for Mr. Sensitivity to work with them; so his wounded feelings take precedence over approving America rebuilding infrastructure. Cohen went on to prevaricate about the 22-month Special Counsel investigation, saying that “bogus allegations” had been “debunked by the investigation itself and by every other investigation by Congress and DOJ”.  FALSE!

Thomas Mosher ranted that “the politically-motivated abuse from liberals, who hate Trump, and who have all but discarded traditional American values” has exacerbated the spiritually dark period in which we exist.  Hey Thomas, a traditional American value is welcoming immigrants and refugees fleeing certain death, persecution or being sex-trafficked.  What “rational or reasonable” person believes the Dayton-shooter was incited to mass-murder by leftists?  Voters will see through the intensely-hostile, right-wing prattle.  The fake Christians, lunatic-fringe evangelicals and extreme fundamentalists are doing much to turn many would-be seekers from the light of true Christianity, with their hateful rhetoric and behaviors toward fellow human beings, and their poor-modeling of the Christian values of the New Testament message espoused and taught by Jesus.  Do you believe Jesus Christ is who the Bible says he is?  Then ACT like it!  Feed the sheep, love another — all the others — who “fall short of perfection”.  And for those who want to clamor for Israel, read Exodus 14, how Pharaoh and his chariots of war pursued the Children of  Israel to bring them back and persecute them further.  ‘Oh great Pharaoh Netanyahu’, let the Palestinian children of the Lord live in freedom and dignity.  If the kingdom of Israel is the great democracy you assert it to be, let the Palestinians be free!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Another week, another shooting; a 19 year-old male, legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle in Nevada, went to the Gilroy (California) Garlic Festival, and shot nearly a dozen people, killing a 6 year-old boy, 13 year-old girl, and a 20-something young man.  All events in our nation are now targets for gunmen.  Yes, gunMEN!  Mainly young or middle-aged, white men are the homegrown terrorists that construct plans to kill as many strangers as possible.  Maybe school shooters feel snubbed, rejected, excluded from their classmates, but most spree-killers seek to create mayhem because THEIR beliefs have excluded them from decent society.  THEIR ideologies separate them from meaningful interaction with others in their communities.   Churches, schools, theatres, concerts, fairs … we can add them all to the list of places no longer safe to attend in America.

These attacks have increased under the influence, the constant hate-stoking and divisive-rhetoric by president Trump, and this tragic state of affairs will only increase exponentially if he wins a second term.  The other factors stoking hate and misinformation is the over 60 right-wing websites and conservative television propaganda-networks.  Before Fox ‘News’, we used to all hear the same newscasts, even if our government wasn’t telling us the whole truth, but not since the Fair Broadcasting Act was abolished in 1987 under Ronald Reagan’s FCC.   The Fairness Doctrine, “since 1949, required media to present both sides’ opinions in the event they weren’t just reporting straight news.  A Democrat-controlled Congress passed a bill to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in 1987;  president Reagan vetoed the bill.    Fox News followed in the 1990s, and America became more polarized and misinformed than ever.”

Most families have been divided by these kinds of communications, but opinions are different than facts.  Yes, partisan-politics have been divisive throughout our history, as our nation has undergone expansive changes.  Many of us have been intellectually-involved; some of us marched, some even got involved in campaigns.  However, a significant number of our citizens, throughout the decades, seem to be totally disinterested in world-events, and national-events, even though the actions and policies of government officials and resulting legislation influence and affect every area of our lives, but somehow they are able to disassociate themselves from the facts and the uncomfortable truths that they spawn.  We were all raised with bias.  I understand that many are apathetic or torn; some weary, overwhelmed.  Stop enabling racism and injustice!    Awaken, Rise, Stand, Shift, please!    We are involved in a real struggle for the soul of our democracy!

Trish Forsyth Voss

The master of deception, subterfuge and race-baiting held a re-election campaign in North Carolina on 7/17/19, on the day that Robert Mueller had originally been scheduled to speak to Congress, so we see why that rally date and site was planned; as was his verbal attack on “the squad”, the progressive Congresswomen of color, last week, on the very day the media was reporting on Trump-friend, and teenage-sex-trafficker, Jeffery Epstein’s sex-trafficking, money-laundering case.  Trump likes to ‘control the narrative’ as much as possible, so he ensures we concentrate on the latest ‘bomb’ thrown in our midst, instead of the news he doesn’t want us to absorb.  Trump’s attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar were deliberate, but he saved the dynamite for the rally.   Lara Trump started the chant.  An ugly crowd braying, “SEND HER BACK!”  and Mr. Chaos-in-Chief the following day lying about how he didn’t agree with his fan’s chants about Omar; even Republicans, tripping over themselves to see who could make the best excuses for their party’s supreme leader …. it’s all contrived!

Yes, it’s racist, but many of us acknowledge that his attacks are also misogynistic, as he hasn’t come out to declare that any male congressmen, “Go back to where you came from”.   All members of Congress took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to please the president.  Right to dissent is written into our Constitution, it is protected and expected; it is fully a part of our democracy!

The judge in Michael Cohen’s case just unsealed court records, ruling the material is of utmost importance to the public interest; so information has begun trickling out from the case in which Trump was named as “Individual 1” (a co-conspirator).  As Robert Mueller is rescheduled to appear before Congress on 7/24/19, we can hardly wait to see what antics Trump will employ to divert our attention from the information to be revealed.   ‘We the People’ have inalienable rights, and in a democracy we can love our country and still criticize the policies and legislation implemented, and even choose to impeach a leader if he/she merits that measure of rebuke.  We can argue on the merits of Socialism vs Capitalism and all the shades in between, but a president attacking and vilifying members of our Congress, for instance saying, “Omar was married to her brother” — is just beyond the pale … of any measure of decency!

Trish Forsyth Voss

“The Persian Gulf is a Mediterranean sea in Western Asia — it’s an extension of the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz and lies between Iran to the northeast and the Arabian Peninsula  to the southwest.  The Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline.”  As I have written before, there is a huge gas-field between the nations of Iran and Qatar; and as I have predicted previously, the Trump administration will start a war with Iran to plunder the region, as Bush-Cheney did elsewhere in the Middle East.

There is much to protect in the region.  In 2018, the US military reiterated the promise to keep the Persian Gulf waterways open to oil tankers, as Iran renewed threats to close off the region.  Most of the world powers have military bases in the region.  Britain, in 1967, moved its naval bases from Aden, seaport in Yemen, to Bahrain; it shares bases in Oman and Kuwait.   France and Germany have military presence in the area.   Russia has set up a big military presence in the Mediterranean, complete with missiles and nuclear-capability.  Russia was in Syria, when the U.S. wasn’t.   The U.S. has an ’empire of bases’ in the Middle East.  Our Navy’s Fifth Fleet has been headquartered in Bahrain since 1949.  In 2003, the Air Force moved its major air operations command center from Saudi Arabia to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.  The U.S. maintains a military presence in several Persian Gulf nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.  We have many troops in Germany, a launching pad for forces going to Afghanistan, and to bases throughout S.W. Asia, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan and Iraq.

The Pentagon, under the Trump administration, has misled Americans about our growing military involvement in a war in Yemen, that we should have no part in.  On 4/04/19, Congress passed an historic, War Powers resolution with strong bipartisan support, calling for the end of America’s involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led war in Yemen, fighting Iranian-allied rebel Houthis.  Trump vetoed the bill; the Senate was unable to override Trump’s veto, so our assistance in another war continues.   Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has stated that he is setting out to build an international coalition against Iran, with officials in  the Persian Gulf, and has recently visited UAE and Saudi Arabia.   Trump has awarded the Saudis  huge arms sales, even contracting them to build bombs for the U.S.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Don’t you just love it when the right-wingers try to lay claim to being the Party of Lincoln?  As if the current party would be realistically represented by Honest Abe, the biggest liberal of all!   Lincoln won election to the Illinois state legislature in 1834 as a member of the Whig Party.  The Federalist Party had dissolved after the War of 1812.  The Democratic-Republicans evolved into the Democrat Party.   The Republican Party, was founded in 1854, as a “coalition of Whigs, Free Soilers and disgruntled Democrats, opposing the extension of slavery into the Western territories, and fought to protect the rights of African Americans after the Civil War”.  During Reconstruction, fiercely, liberal, radical Republicans, in Congress “passed legislation protecting the rights of the blacks, including civil rights and voting rights for black men” (all legislation that most current-day Republicans are against).  “Republicans had become increasingly associated with big business and financial interests in the industrialized North, and those interests became the focus of the Republican Party.”  Federal government had naturally expanded and the first income tax law was passed and implemented.  “White resistance to Reconstructionist policies solidified, and Democratic southern state’s legislatures wiped out most of the Reconstruction’s changes.”  Big changes in the party occurred after WWII, when “white Southerners began migrating to the GOP due to their opposition to big government, expanded labor unions and Democratic support for civil rights, as well as conservative Christians’ opposition to abortion”.  Names of political parties have changed over time, parties have shifted members, but basically the Republicans and Democrats  flipped in their ideological platforms when the Dixie-crats (States’ Rights Democratic Party) — who were “committed to the maintenance of segregation, opposed to federal intervention into race relations, and disturbed by their region’s declining influence within the national party” — broke away from the Democratic party, assumed greater control in several Southern states, legislated Jim Crow laws, instituted Black Codes, formed terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, lynched multitudes of black citizens, imprisoned thousands more, and have covetously held on to their bigotry for decades.  They form the nucleus of the current Republican Party.  Notice that right wingers …. just about everything they say is falsehoods and deception?   And by the way, William P. Barr is NO Atticus Finch!   He’s a Deep-State actor, and he needs to be impeached!  He’s supposed to be the Attorney General for the United States, not a personal lawyer-fixer for Donald J. Trump!

Trish ForsythVoss

A Nuclear Option is Trump ‘exercising’ his Enemies List, handing it over to Attorney General Barr, giving his “trustee” authorized access to all 16 governmental intel-agencies’ information.   Trump said, “I declassified everything”  …. for Barr, whom Trump says, “can share the info with Congress or do whatever he wants with it”.  Trump has stated that “THEY are guilty of Treason”, the people who were investigating Russian interference from before the 2016 election.  Trump has maligned the FBI, CIA, NSA; he claims, “They tried to do a take-down on the president of the United States.  That’s Treason!”   The Constitution, Article 3, Sect 3, reads, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort”.   In what ways is Trump perhaps giving Putin “aid and comfort”, (after their cyberattacks on us)?    What are the risks …. dismantling intel-communities, skewing information?   Trump wants vindication and revenge!

Trump is losing his obstruction battles in the courts; his financial records will be reviewed.  The “most transparent president ever” knows what he has to hide.  Outraged, he exclaimed, “the Mueller report is over!  Congress wants a RE-DO!”    Wrong again, Mr. President.   Mueller’s report outlined several instances of Obstruction of Justice, whereon Trump could be impeached, and Congress holds Impeachment duties!

Trump, ever scolding journalists about their fake news ….. his cohorts altered and slowed a video clip of Speaker Pelosi, making her appear to be drunk or otherwise impaired; GOP-TV fake news!  Trump reportedly wasn’t prepared to agree on an Infrastructure deal on 5/22; he left in a huff, appeared in the Rose Garden, with prepared signs that read:  “Mueller report showed: No Collusion, No Obstruction”, which it did NOT!   Pelosi & Schumer held their own press conference just after Trump aborted the Infrastructure meeting; Pelosi said that Trump “had a temper tantrum, pounded his fist on the table, and left the meeting”.  The next day Pelosi went a step further saying that she was praying for the president and she hoped his family, staff or administration would have an Intervention with him.  Later that day, projection-artist Donald Trump called Pelosi, “Crazy Nancy”, and said, “she’s not the same; she’s lost it!”  The next day journalists asked him about his personal attacks on Pelosi; Trump said that Pelosi said “horrible things” about him, and he was just responding.  He announced again that he is an “extremely-stable genius”!

Trish Forsyth Voss

    I listened to Jeff Daniels talk about the Broadway play “To Kill a Mockingbird”, in which he portrays the noble attorney, Atticus Finch.  The play written by Aaron Sorkin, adapted from Harper Lee’s great book, a classic in American Literature, is powerful; the drama is set in a small town in 1934 Alabama, a black man unjustly accused and arrested for rape.   Daniels stated that “the current political climate impacts his performance”, and he talked about “those now in Congress worried about the politics of standing up against Trump”, saying, ‘”You are worthless to me right now.  I need people to be heroic.  Who are you?  Because democracy is at stake!”  Daniels said that he agrees it would be too big a gamble to go all the way up to 2020 and lose, “that is the end of democracy”.

    Atticus says, ” We have to heal this wound or we will never stop bleeding!  We can’t go on like this!  We have to make good this crime!  So let’s hasten the change; let’s hasten the end of the beginning! Let’s begin with justice!”   James Comey spoke on his experience of viewing this play saying, “people can be deeply biased and flawed, but the Truth is a real thing.  Our heroes, in the long run, are the ones who stood up for it.  The thousand little cowards melt away; no plays will be written about the virtue of this Republican party and their passion for truth.”    

    Daniels likens Trump rallies  to an angry mob, saying, “A mob acts on emotion, absent facts, absent contemplation and responsibility; it seeks anonymity.  A conscience can be exhausting; it can keep you up at night.  But these are people you go to church with, you see in your community.”  Daniels explained that Atticus has to go through a change, somewhat different than in the book; “he’s more of a protagonist, he’s an apologist, an enabler”.   “Atticus Finch believes that there is good in everyone; he appealed to the better angels of the white, Christian, farmer-jurors in the courtroom.”   In the play, Atticus’ daughter, Scout, recognizes one of the KKK members, who come to the jail to lynch the accused, as her neighbor, Mr. Cunningham, and speaks to him.   This is a Moral crises!   We must conduct ourselves as if ALL our children are watching, because they are!   This is our wake-up call!   Who will be our heroes?  

Trish Forsyth Voss

The most astounding thing Barr said before the Senate on May 1, 2019, was that he “didn’t personally review all the underlying evidence in the Mueller report”.  He was asked by Senator Kamala Harris, “if Deputy AG Rosenstein had, or if any of their staff had?  Barr answered, ‘No, we accepted it all as accurate”.  Wow!  Well, he’s not acting as if he accepts all that Mueller put forth!  So with this ploy, ‘not being familiar with what’s in the report’, Barr gets off not answering to the discrepancies between what he’s arguing and what Mueller conscientiously constructed from facts, testimonies and evidence.  Barr was tapdancing, splitting hairs, talking around everything, acting as if he didn’t understand the questions he was asked, denying, refuting. doubling down on “No Collusion”.  Then he argued with Senator Blumenthal’s characterization that Barr had basically cleared Trump; he said that he “didn’t exonerate Trump”.   I’m reminded of the overweight Senator dancing in “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” movie, except that THAT actor was good and funny.

Mueller wrote a letter to Barr, for the record, that Barr “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of his report”, when giving his ‘opinion’ about the report, initially.   Mueller wrote that, “there is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.  This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations”.   Barr said Muller’s letter to him “was a bit snitty; one of his aides probably wrote it”.  Even though Barr, throughout his earlier career, has tried his best to counter accusations against prior Republican presidents, this stint might undo him.  “Everything that Trump touches …. turns to crap!”   James Comey said that Trump, “eats the souls of the people who get close to him and agrees to be on ‘Team Trump’.  He continued, “of course to stay …. you must be seen to be on his team, then he eats your soul in small bites”

Senator Mazie Hirono called Barr out as a liar, which he is.  Senator Kamala Harris said, “Barr lacks all credibility; Barr is biased and should recuse himself from the 14 other Mueller referral cases”.  Senator Richard Blumenthal tried to hold him to several truths, unsuccessfully.  Barr said that Trump’s “attempt to have Mueller fired was not Obstruction!”  He further announced that, “a president does not need to let an investigation run its course if it is groundless and he is falsely accused; that would NOT be Obstruction”.   “Everything Trump touches turns to crap!”   Senator Harris directly asked Barr, “Did the president or anyone else at the White House ever suggest that you open an investigation of anyone?”  Barr could not answer that query; he was struggling with the word: suggest.  So, we know that’s a ‘Yes!’  Trump intends to go after his ‘political enemies’, just like Nixon’s “enemies list”.  So many parallels between Nixon and Trump.  Law and Order, indeed!       Democrats call for AG Barr’s Resignation!  John Mitchell, Nixon’s AG,  was convicted on charges of conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice, and served 19 months prison time.

In case you’re looking for  the ‘Mueller Report’,  book for sale, Walmart has it; I got my copy and will be digging in.   Stay tuned: I’ll be writing on issues concerned therein. (And for those of you who haven’t yet seen the movie: ‘VICE’, go rent it and watch it!   Another example of : Deep State.

Trish Forsyth Voss

“Deep State Politics is the study of hidden, permanent institutions and interests whose influence on the political realm transcends the elected, appointed, and career officials who come and go”, per Peter Dale Scott, who wrote ‘The American Deep State’ (2018) and ‘American War Machine’ (2010).  One example of ‘Deep State’ includes private sources of power, out-side government, such as Russian, private, Alfa ‘Bank’, and that “institution’s clout in Washington D.C, including protection from senior Republicans” for deals done, recent and in decades past.

Alfa Group’s connections stretch right to the current Attorney General William P. Barr, as well as Brian Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, both of whom previously worked for Kirkland & Ellis, LLP — that represented Russia’s Bank Alfa.  Barr reportedly made over $1 million from Kirkland (between March 2017, until he was confirmed as AG in Feb 2019).  Brian Benczkowski was narrowly confirmed in July 2018; both landing in these high positions to cover-up alleged criminal activities.   These connections represent flagrant conflicts of interest.  “The legal standard is clear — it’s not about actual conflict — it’s about the appearance of conflict or bias.”

But that’s not all.  Barr has holdings in “Vector Group, whose company’s president, Howard Lorbes, brought Trump to Moscow in the 1990s to seek investment projects there — the trip seen as the first of many attempts to establish a Trump Tower Moscow”.   Then there’s Barr’s significant assets (between $100,000 – $250,000) with Deutsche, which was the only bank lending Trump money when all others said, “NO”.  Deutsche Bank has actually paid huge fines for previous involvement in Russian money-laundering schemes.  Two Congressional committees are investigating Trump’s business ties to Deutsche Bank.

Alfa financial-group — created by three Russian oligarchs (Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and German Khan); it’s principal owner, Fridman is a Russian-Jewish, mega-billionaire with Israeli citizenship and close ties to both Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu — is accused of running a secret, cyber-communications channel between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian authorities.   “Many individuals are now facing jail terms because of Mueller and FBI investigations, but no such danger threatens firms big enough to participate in the higher nexus of what I call the deep state”, said Peter Dale Scott.

Barr is not only attempting to shield the Executive Office, but also dismissal of any collusion conflicts with Bank Alfa, Vector Group and Deutsche Bank.       Trump, Barr and senior Republicans can holler all they want, “It’s OVER!”    But, it’s far from over!

Trish Forsyth Voss

We wanted to believe the best about William P. Barr when confirmed Attorney General by the Senate.  He was described as having had a distinguished career and was a “principled-institutionalist”.  Obviously, that’s not always a positive.  Barr’s recent ‘legal order’ delivers on Trump’s promise to end “catch and release” of migrants crossing the border to escape death and sexual-trafficking  in their home countries.  “William Barr was an ardent champion of policies that have transformed America into the world’s leading incarcerator”, except when it comes to high-level Republicans convicted of crimes.  Former president George H.W. Bush pardoned six individuals — involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, four of whom had already been convicted of lying to federal and congressional investigators about the secret, illegal operation — at the suggestion of William Barr, as former AG.

“Barr figured prominently in arguments to limit CIA responsibility to provide notification to Congress about covert actions during the 1980’s.”  Barr, at a senior post in Office of Legal Counsel, wrote legal responses supporting the idea of the president’s “virtually unfettered discretion” in foreign policy, and downplayed Congress’s power of the purse, asserting that it was “by no means limitless”.

Barr misled Congress 30 years ago when as Assistant Attorney General under ‘Poppy Bush’, he wrote a controversial legal opinion titled, “Authority of the FBI to Override Customary or Other International Law in the Course of Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities”, basically saying that FBI agents had the authority to apprehend enemies or fugitives from U.S. law …. in foreign countries, without first obtaining the foreign state’s consent.  Shortly thereafter, Barr appeared before Congress and refused to provide the document he had authored, but offered to give them a “summary of principal conclusions” of the reasoning and objectives.  Sound familiar?  Barr’s memo reversed an earlier ruling (warning that agents could face kidnapping charges abroad if they used such tactics).  Barr provided a “redacted opinion” to Congress.  “There was no justifiable reason for having withheld that document from Congress or the public”, and Barr omitted the most controversial parts of that justice department memo when giving his ‘summary’ to Congress.  ‘Poppy Bush’ had thrown out several statements regarding overthrowing Panama; the memo written in-part to justify seizing dictator, Manuel Noriega.

Barr, ‘the cover-up General’, feels strongly that the Office of the Presidency has “virtually unfettered discretion” in doing whatever it deems necessary, and obviously feels “the ends justifies the means’.  A career distinguished — by GOP cover-ups.

Trish Forsyth Voss